April 2019 News

President’s Message

What watercolor artist doesn’t love COLOR? I recently purchased a new tube of watercolor because it just looked too delicious to pass up. And yet, it is not just the colors we choose, but how we put together those colors, each in our own unique style, that makes a wonderful painting.

I recently went plein air painting with my small travel palette, my watercolor journal and one travel brush. With just a few colors, I was able to create several small studies of the landscape around me. Good art is always about the composition, the value and lastly, the color. Value does the work, color gets the glory.

When overwhelmed with color palette choices, I return to the basics: red, yellow and blue. But which red, yellow or blue? Each combination of these colors produces different results, yet the colors blend wonderfully. For example, Venetian Red, Prussian Blue and Cadmium Yellow worked great for my Midwest farm scene; very earthy tones. However, when I paint in Hawaii, I choose a very different palette to work from.

Artist Nita Leland developed 6 color wheel palettes that were presented in an “Artistsnetwork” publication. Each of these were based on one red, one blue and one yellow. It was fun to try out these palettes to create very different paintings.

Whatever your palette, I encourage you to occasionally try out a new color or

combinations of colors… you never know where exploration will take you!

Have fun and hope to see you at our next meeting.

Ruth Philliben, President, AWA

“To create one’s own world takes courage.Georgia O’Keeffe